Draft:Marcus Galante

Marcus Galante is an American choreographer, dancer, music theatre performer, artistic director, dance teacher and dance accompanist. His choreography and teaching have reached audiences and students in America, Europe, and Asia. Galante appeared as 'Gregory Gardner' in the first National Company tour of the musical A Chorus Line in Chicago, in addition to tours of Pippin as the Field Marshall, the Carnival Boy in Carousel with Robert Goulet and others.[1]

Training

Galante was trained at the American Ballet Theatre school at the School of the American Ballet. He was also a trainee at the Harkness School of Dance. Some of his teachers include ballet teachers Patricia Wilde, Nancy Clement, Leon Danielian, Olga Merinova, Richard Rapp, Stanley Williams, George Balanchine, David Howard, Maria Vegh, and jazz teachers Chuck Kelley and Phil Black. [2]

Dancing

Galante has appeared with the Chicago Lyric Ballet under Maria Tallchief, The Cleveland Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet and was a soloist with the National Ballet of South Africa. Other companies include Garden State Ballet, Eglevsky Ballet, Houston Grand Opera, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Ballet Grandiva, the Buffalo Opera Company (Carousel), Chautauqua Dance Institute, Helsinki Ballet Competition, Pori Dance Company (Finland), Lone Star Ballet, Cultural Park Theatre Company (Charlie Brown, Ft. Myers), the National Ballet School of Bulgaria and many other companies and schools. [3]

A Chorus Line

Galante describes the experience of auditioning: “I auditioned at the Shubert a couple of times and finally, I got the call, ‘We are sending you to Chicago.’ Well, it gets complicated after that. I had laryngitis because it was winter and I was afraid to say anything so I couldn’t sing that well. I was scared to death because I had no experience in the Broadway world. I was alone with the conductor/vocal coach and the dance captain, Roy. Fern and Wanda were in that company. You had 2 weeks alone with the dance captain, vocal coach and I had 1 girl with me. I had tons of notes, a tape recorder, no money—it was terribly stressful."[4] Galante also describes the stress of rehearsal: “I remember my first stage rehearsal. People running from place to place because they had to understudy many parts. It’s hard because they didn’t want to be there for new people. I stood next to Wanda Richert who was playing Cassie and Fern Fitzgerald who was Sheila. I remember kicking Tina at the finale because I was so scared. You can’t imagine the pressure. Roy, the dance captain, yelled at me for saying ‘life darlings.’ I as Greg was determined to say the same line said on Broadway. ‘I told you not to say that line.’ Oh well…always a rebel. Short lived moment of glory."[Johnson, Lauryn. "Marcus Galante and A Chorus Line." [5] Galante did a total of three tours of ACL. [6]

Choreography

In 2004, Mr. Galante’s Tutti Frutti, a tribute to Josephine Baker and Carmen Miranda was performed at New York City Center for the Dancers Transition Gala “Gotta Dance! A Tribute to Hollywood.” He had two other works shown in NYC that year, "Garnets" and "Star-Spangled Ballerina." His ballet "Fiddle Faddle" was premiered in NYC in 2007 and then in Tokyo, Japan, Bulgaria, Ailey Studios, and Scarsdale Studios. Galante has served on the faculty of some of the most prestigious schools in the country. Included are the New York City Ballet (guest teacher company class), Alvin Ailey American Dance Center where he was invited to be the company teacher of Ailey II, Pennsylvania Ballet School and Company, the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Lines Contemporary Ballet Company in San Francisco, Eglevsky Ballet, Ballet Chicago, Steps in New York, Broadway Dance Center, The Virginia School of the Arts and many others. Mr. Galante was a faculty member at the Midwestern Regional Ballet Festival in Columbus, Ohio and The Chicago National Association of Dance Masters. He has been invited to St. Petersburg, Russia and four times to Finland where he taught ballet and Fosse style Broadway dance before returning to Germany for a second teaching tour. He has also taught and choreographed extensively in Japan, and other international locations. [7] [8] https://www.instagram.com/herman_me/reel/C3qxw-mPzxf/ Videotapes of his choreographic work are held by the New York Public Library.[https://www.nypl.org/research/research-catalog/search?filters[contributorLiteral][0]=Galante,%20Marcus

Les Grands Ballets de Loony

Mr. Galante was the artistic director for the comedy/parody cross-dressing ballet company Les Grands Ballets de Loony. A 1995 review by Molly McQuade in Dance Magazine of the June 1995 performance at NYC's Symphony Space states that "Something there is that doesn't love a ballerina. She is so beautiful and so scrutinized that her art can come to seem ridiculously earnest, and a rich subject for parody. But it's almost as difficult to dance poorly as to dance well; parody is as tricky to pull off as ballet."[9] [10]

Review of Les Ballets Grandiva

Backstage's Phyllis Goldman reviewed a 2019 performance of Les Ballets Grandiva at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre: "The Square's Dance" takes its motivation from Balanchine's "Square Dance," in which he mixes hoedowns and pointe work. Choreographer Marcus Galante gives the same slant, but with a little more slapstick, perhaps less clever than the other repertory pieces.[11]

Review of Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo

A Los Angeles Times review from 1993 states that "In this case, troupe resident choreographer Marcus Galante has zeroed in on the patriotic zest of Balanchine's "Stars and Stripes. Galante uses some of the same Sousa marches, also present a majorette leading a corps regiment, arranges a pas de deux... and masses everyone in front of an American flag at the end. Hurrah!" [12]

New York Times Reviews

The NYT reviewed Galante's 'Sonata Russe' created for the Garden State Ballet in 1995. In the article, Galante talks about being an independent choreographer: "Mr. Galante embodies an issue that besets unknown and emerging choreographers. For all the joy that accompanies the creation of a new ballet, there is also uncertainty. For an itinerant dance maker without a permanent company affiliation, having his work seen and liked by artistic directors who might commission works is paramount. The four performances of the Garden State Ballet carry the potential to land him his next job, liberating him from employment as a sales, clerk, waiter or dance-class accompanist. “It’s a tough, tough business unless you know the right people,” Mr. Galante said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re the next Balanchine. If you don’t know people, you won’t work.”Gilford, Barbara. "Choreographers and Unseen Pressures," The New York Times, March 11, 1990. In 2001, Jennifer Dunning offered a review of Star-Spangled Ballerina. Dunning, Jennifer. "Dance Review: When Ballerinas Are Not What They Seem." The New York Times, April 9, 2001.

Television and Film

He created choreography for the HBO special Dragtime in 1998. The Harkness Foundation for Dance awarded him five grants for choreography. [13] In 1995 he was nominated for a Dance in Film award by the International Dance Film Association for the short film Private Performance with Super-Size Me director Morgan Spurlock. [14]

Awards/Grants

Mr. Galante received a National Endowment Fellowship for his ballet “Out of Doors” to the music of Bela Bartok created for Ballet Chicago. The Harkness Foundation for Dance awarded him five grants for choreography.[15]

Ballet Class Accompanist

Mr. Galante is a pianist trained at the Manhattan School of Music. He has played for every major ballet school in New York. He released two ballet class CDs arranging and playing the music himself. [16]